What Evangeline Saw: There Is Forgiveness
by 2remember
Summary: Die and get it over with, Evangeline, there is no Forgiveness for you....


**Disclaimer:** All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners, particularly the characters taken from the manga and animated series, 'Negima!'. Additionally, the story takes place within the context of the fan fiction, "Child of Mine," written by Ambrant Arandel. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

**Author's Note:** this story is another short story that describes what Evangeline saw in the Mirror of Ebyam after seeing a possible future with Negi Springfield. This scene takes place in Chapter 2 of "Child of Mine," by Ambrant Arandel, after she used the mirror the first time.

* * *

The dawn was coming rapidly, the night sky starting to change from black to purple as the sun made its way to the horizon. 

Evangeline had spent the entire evening Negi's room, scrying her future with the Mirror of Ebyam, seeing a myriad of possibilities. There were some that surprised her, and a lot that didn't.

"This will be the last time," she finally said to herself, "the others will be waking soon, and I need to be gone before that happens."

She invoked the activation spell again, then sat and waited. This time, the mirror didn't change, the room did. It grew darker, ominously darker, like instead of the dawn coming, midnight was drawing nigh. The room became almost pitch black; the only thing she could see was herself and the mirror. Only when the room became so black that all detail was lost did the mirror change.

It started to glow red, a sickly dark red. Then, an image resolved itself in the mirror. Evangeline, no stranger to the dark side of existence, recoiled in horror.

The mirror showed Hell, Perdition, the Pit, the prison of Fallen Angels, the Ultimate Destination of the Wicked and the Damned. Not the abstract concept, not her's or anyone's version of Hell. The image showed Hell itself, the actual place.

It looked like a cave deep in the earth someplace. Everything there was a glowing blood red color. In the foreground, she saw a river of what looked like blood flowing across the scene. As she looked closer, Evangeline realized that it was blood that flowed, a pure blood that raised a sensation in her as she looked upon it that she had never felt so intensely in all of the centuries she spent drinking it, Desire, Lust. Even through the mirror, the blood in that image called out to her, compelling her to drink her fill. The girl's mouth began to water as she thought about it; she longed to crawl into the image and drown in that wonderful, beautiful blood. Then the scene changed.

Demons were playing with a hapless victim by the edge of the stream, a damned soul. It looked like there were hundreds of them, scrabbling, clawing and fighting to get their turn at the victim. These demons weren't the cute little devils you saw in kiddie cartoons; they weren't even the grotesque monsters seen in horror movies. These creatures were literally indescribable. What they looked like when they came to Earth was bad enough, but that was only a pale shadow of what they really looked like, here in their home.

As she watched, one of them turned to her.

"Well, you've finally arrived," it said with a toothy grin, "you know, the thing that surprises me the most is, even though you knew all this would happen, you still wound up here."

The demon pointed to the victim, and Eva saw that it was her. She was almost literally covered in demons, and they were abusing her in ways she could barely imagine, and she had quite an imagination. The girl in the image was being made to do things Evangeline didn't think were physically possible. Every now and then, one of her torturers would take her, drag her to the river of blood, and force her under the surface, then laugh as he forced her to drink. She flailed about like she was drowning, but the foul thing held her down, finally yanking her out when he though she had enough. As soon as her head cleared the blood, she screamed, a sound that Evangeline didn't think a human's voice box could produce. Then the demons resumed their play.

"As you can see, you're having a wonderful time here," the demon that first spoke to her said, "we call that stream 'the blood of renewal.' Think of it as our bread and butter. Even now, on the other side of that mirror, I'll just be you're dying to jump in and drink your fill. You certainly didn't have a problem drinking it the first time we gave it to you. But it seems that, for you anyway, drinking the blood of renewal isn't the treat its cracked up to be. You drink it once, and then you never want to drink it again. It heals and rejuvenates your body, at the cost of inflicting one thousand times more pain than you've ever experienced in your life, and we're making sure you experience _a lot_ of pain. Right now, we're just taking a break from the more serious stuff; we want to make sure you last a good, long, time. You see, you deprived us of the one we were really after, and that ticked us off, so we're taking our frustrations out on you. You should have never knocked Negi Springfield out of the way when I grabbed for him. If you hadn't, he would be here instead of you."

Then the demon smiled wider, "and you want to know the best part? You aren't dead. We took you alive from Earth. We're having our way with you here, making you drink the blood of renewal to keep your flesh alive, until you can't take it any more. Then we'll let you die, only to come right back here where we can start the fun all over again!"

At that, the demon laughed. It was all Eva could do to not run screaming from the room, to find _any_ way to avoid this fate.

"You can't escape it, Dark Evangel; you've walked this path far too long to avoid it now. Why don't you go and end yourself now? Yes, you will still wind up here, but you won't have gone through the warm up your future self is enjoying. Come to us, take your rightful place here; you know how. Die and get it over with; there is no Forgiveness for you there."

Eva sat there, before the mirror, and contemplated what the demon had told her. In that moment, possibly the darkest in her life, she seriously thought about taking her life; to mitigate, if only a little, the suffering she knew was in store for her. She knew exactly what the demon was talking about, she knew how to utterly destroy a high daylight walker. She learned that secret years ago, just in case she ever came across one she had to kill.

_He's right, _she thought,_ there is no Forgiveness for me._

She sat silently before the mirror she foolishly used to see her future, which had now become her Final Judge, and reviewed the incantations she would need to invoke, and prepared for the end. He stared back at her through the mirror, smiling at her pain, her emptiness. He was eagerly waiting for her to take the path he offered her, to cut short her life and avoid the future he had just shown her.

Suddenly, the spell of defeat and despair was broken. A low rumble was heard in the background of the image, like someone was chanting or invoking a spell.

"Oh, bother, they're trying again," the demon said, sighing, clearly perturbed by the interruption. He turned and motioned to a few of the others, who grumbled and went in the direction of the commotion.

"It happens every so often," the demon said, "that fool of a magi tries to come here and rescue you. He doesn't realize that the living can't come here, only the dead or the Fallen. Now, come on, get a move on, we don't have all eternity to wait!"

Eva sighed, defeated. She opened her mouth to invoke the ritual when, suddenly, one of the other demons called back from the distance, "hey, boss! I think we've got real trouble this time! Looks like the kid's got re-enforcements!"

Then Evangeline heard a voice in the distance, Negi's voice.

"Hear me, Oh Faithful Servants, those who Stood when others Fell! I call upon the Witnesses of The Four Corners to cast Your Light Of Truth into the Darkness, and reveal what I seek!"

It was like someone had turned on the lights. Suddenly, the scene was bathed in pure, bright, white light, revealing the scene for what it truly was.

The room was a cave, and it wasn't covered in blood. The stream had disappeared, leaving a dry creek bed. And the demons weren't indescribably hideous creatures anymore; they were broken, bloody and bruised angels, the losers in the great Struggle Between Good and Evil. The were gaunt and sickly, and shied away from the light, running for any bit of darkness they could find to cover their shame. Soon, the future Evangeline was all alone, in the center of the light.

Her future self was a small, frightened child, bound by chains and cords, many of them her own making. The outermost chains held her fast to the ground of this place. The other bindings, her present self realized, were the ones that she herself had made. The girl in the mirror was frightened and abused, and now powerless and alone. She wept as she awaited for the judgment she knew was at hand because she had been so slow.

"WHO HAS BROKEN THE TRUCE!" thundered a Voice, "WHO HAS BROUGHT A LIVING SOUL TO THE PIT? SHALL THERE BE WAR AGAIN?"

"No, no, no," came a new voice. A new demon stepped into the light, the Master of the Pit. He too looked like the others here, but he still stood tall and proud in his defiance.

"I did not authorize this," he said, "one of my minions took it upon himself to bring her here. I may be a lot of things, but I am not a fool. I will not bring Your Wrath down upon me unless or until I am ready to topple you."

"BOASTFUL AS EVER, I SEE," the Voice said, "VERY WELL. REMOVE HER FROM YOUR DOMAIN AND WE WILL WITHDRAW."

"Come and get her," one of the demons said from the shadows.

"DO YOU REALLY WANT ME TO DO THAT? I WILL IF YOU REALLY WANT ME TO, BUT YOU WON'T LIKE IT IF I DO."

"No no, that's okay," quickly said the Master of the Pit, "that was just one of my associates speaking out of turn."

The head demon then walked over and broke the chains that held the girl down. He gently picked her up and carried her to the edge of the light.

"Take her and begone! Trouble my realm no more!"

Hands, human hands reached into the light and took Evangeline from her captor. As soon as she disappeared into the light, the mirror went blank.

Evangeline jerked back like a cord had been cut, the break was so abrupt. She sat there a moment, processing what she had just seen, thinking about just how close she came to ending it all, wondering if she still shouldn't kill herself to avoid this fate, when the mirror glowed bright again.

This time, the scene was Earth, the World Tree Plaza as a matter of fact. A great magic circle had been drawn on the Plaza ground, one that Evangeline recognized as a circle used in confining demons when opening up a portal into Hell. At each of the Cardinal Points of the circle were the afterimages of the beings that had stood there, the Witnesses Of The Earth, archangels charged with observing all that happened there against the Day Of Judgment.

Eva's future self was laying in the center of the circle, naked, battered and bruised. Crouching over her, settling her down, was Negi Springfield, now a young man. Next to him stood Asuna, who was calling for Konoka to come quickly. On Negi's other side was a person she hadn't seen for years, Negi's father Nagi.

On the inside of the circle, but away from the center, were all of Negi's magical companions. The had formed a wedge, with Negi was at the apex. It looked like each mage had placed their hands on the ones in front of them. Eva realized that what they had done was to channel their magic into the person in front of them, then the person in front channeled their combined powers forward, until all of their power passed into Negi. She had never seen such a thing before, and vowed to make sure she found out more about it and teach it to him when she did.

Chachamaru and Chachazero also stood inside, clearly wanting to join their Mistress' side, but holding back so the others could tend to her.

It was the people outside the circle that surprised the vampire girl the most. It seemed that all the other students in Negi's 3-A class were there, now all grown up. Each of them knelt at the edge, and were chanting or praying, something she had never seen them do before. Some had looks of determination on their faces, others looks of peace. All had tears in their eyes. All the while, they never stopped what they were doing.

The scene then panned over to the girl in the center, her future self. Konoka had arrived, and was rubbing a salve on her body.

"What is that?" the present Evangeline asked.

"Balm of Gilead," Konoka said without looking up, "it heals the body and the spirit. After what you've been through, you sure do need it."

"But how did this happen?" she said.

"You saved my life," Negi said, looking straight at Evangeline-of-the-past, "six weeks ago, demons attacked the school. It was awful; broken bodies, people petrified everywhere, mage and mundane alike. They had come to destroy the school and to get me. And they just about had me; that was until you threw yourself in front of me at the last second. They dragged you back with them when they retreated. Since then, we've been trying everything we could think of to rescue you. Finally, I found out that their taking you was a violation of whatever truce there is between Heaven and Hell, so all I had to do then was notify the Other Side of the breach."

Her future self had recovered somewhat now, and started crying into Konoka's shoulder. Konoka held the girl close for a moment, then motioned for someone to come over and help her. Immediately, those who had knelt on the outside of the circle rushed in. Others rushed away, but quickly returned with a stretcher and medical equipment. Hands reached out and cradled the girl as they gently lifted her from the ground and the healer's embrace, then set her on he stretcher. Konoka stood up after they took the girl and followed the stretcher as they carted Evangeline away.

Evangeline A.K. McDowell sat before the mirror and watched. They came after her. After all of the evil things she had done in her life, some of them to the very people she saw in the mirror, they almost literally stormed the gates of Hell itself to rescue her. Why? Why did they do it? That question compelled her, she couldn't _not _ask it.

Trembling, almost in tears, afraid of the answer she would get, she asked, "why did you do it, boyo? You know what I am; we both know people that would say I deserved what I got; a lot of them are standing right there with you now. Why did you come after me?"

Before Negi could answer, his father Nagi did. The years had aged him, but that age was more like the robes of a king, than the curse of original sin. Through all of the years, he still had the boyish face she had come to love.

"Because Evangeline," he told her down the years, "there is Forgiveness available to everyone here, even you."

* * *

My thanks to Ambrant Arandel for allowing me to play in his sandbox. Keep up the good work, Ambrant! 


End file.
